Comme les Chinois

L’importance du scandale Guo Meimei + Croix-Rouge chinoise

2011-07-08

Au départ, l’histoire de Guo Meimei (郭美美) peut paraître anodine. Une belle fille, d’à peine vingt ans, prend des photos d’elle bien accôtée sur de belles voitures. Elle parle sans retenue de son style de vie flamboyant. La shit a pogné la fan lorsqu’elle a weiboyé il y a déjà plus de deux semaines qu’elle … Continue reading “L’importance du scandale Guo Meimei + Croix-Rouge chinoise”

La shit a pogné la fan lorsqu’elle a weiboyé il y a déjà plus de deux semaines qu’elle est une des dirigeantes de la portion commerciale de la Croix-Rouge de Chine (qui n’a rien à voir avec la Croix-Rouge internationale, contrairement à celles de la plupart des pays). Quoi? Qu’est-ce qu’une jeune femme qui devrait encore être à l’université fait-elle à se vanter d’être en haut dans la hiérarchie d’une des plus grandes sociétés charitables de la République populaire de Chine? Était-ce la maîtresse d’un (vrai) dirigeant de la Croix-Rouge?

Elle a depuis effacé tous les messages compromettants de son compte Weibo et nié tout lien avec l’organisme. Pourtant, la tempête médiatique continue de faire rage et sa vie d’adolescente passée la vingtaine reste bien étalée au vu et sû de ses 460 000 suiveux.

Cette histoire est importante parce qu’elle constitue l’exemple parfait de la crise de crédibilité que vivent les organisations en Chine, qu’elles soient commerciales ou caritatives. Si les gens de plus en plus riches en Chine veulent donner de l’argent pour une bonne cause, à qui le donneront-ils, si même la Croix-Rouge peut être corrompue? Celle-ci gère des sommes astronomiques, elle qui a donné 2,8 milliards $US en 2011 à la province du Sichuan.

Les gens ordinaires, la classe moyenne, veulent connaître la vérité. Peut-être qu’à l’étranger, on s’inquiète pour les droits de l’homme ceci, et la démocratie cela. Mais ce qui est encore plus important à mes yeux, c’est la confiance. La confiance qu’on a pour ses institutions, la confiance qu’on a pour ses voisins. Dans la vie ordinaire des gens, de pouvoir truster que ce qu’on achète au supermarché est vraiment ce qui est indiqué sur la boîte, c’est ce qui importe vraiment. Faut commencer au niveau micro.

Alors ils se branchent sur leur Weibo via leur téléphone mobile et consultent les médias en ligne pour savoir s’ils ont été crossés par la Croix-Rouge (qui devrait peut-être apprendre de son synonyme international). Le portail QQ a même consacré une page spéciale pour la jolie demoiselle.

(Voici un bon récapitulatif de toute l’histoire, via ChinaSmack.)

Comment est-ce que j’écoute la série Canadiens-Bruins à Hong Kong ?

2011-04-17

Je me lève à 7h du mat, j’allume NHL Gamecenter Live sur mon téléphone, et je regarde le Twitter en même temps. Comme NHL.com n’offre que des feeds américains, j’y vais all-in avec l’offre de NESN. 🙂 C’est beau de les entendre rager. Je me fais des toasts et me prends un thé.

Je me lève à 7h du mat, j’allume NHL Gamecenter Live sur mon téléphone, et je regarde le Twitter en même temps.

Comme NHL.com n’offre que des feeds américains, j’y vais all-in avec l’offre de NESN. 🙂 C’est beau de les entendre rager.

Je me fais des toasts et me prends un thé.

The Chinese Canadian vote, poll by poll

2011-04-14

Aside from being the proud owner of CommeLesChinois.ca, I am also a computer/media/data specialist. Recently, I launched an updated version of my election maps with Cyberpresse. The map was designed using results by polling division from previous elections, the smallest available division for electoral results. Each of these polls has about 200-500 people living in … Continue reading “The Chinese Canadian vote, poll by poll”

Aside from being the proud owner of CommeLesChinois.ca, I am also a computer/media/data specialist. Recently, I launched an updated version of my election maps with Cyberpresse. The map was designed using results by polling division from previous elections, the smallest available division for electoral results. Each of these polls has about 200-500 people living in them, and you can basically know what your block (if you live in the city) tends to vote for.

The consequence is voyeurism for political junkies. And I also like to go play with the maps, and decided to assemble a bunch of interesting ridings with relatively a strong proportion of Canadians of Chinese origin living in them. For that, I used Pundits’ Guide‘s fantastic tool for finding census data divided by riding.

I found that the Richmond riding, south of Vancouver was in fact the most “Chinese” (based on the 2006 census), with 50.2% of the population declared to be Chinese. The 2008 map is not in fact interesting, but juxtaposed with the 2006, shows the dramatic shift from Liberals (rep. by former cabinet minister Raymond Chan) to the Conservatives (Alice Wong). 2006 was when the Liberals lost power to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

Richmond in 2006…

…and in 2008

Some ridings were won or lost by a hair. In the Vancouver area, the closest race happened in Vancouver South, the third most Chinese riding of the country (43.7%), where the MP is a Liberal, former health minister Ujjal Dosanjh. He won the last election by 20 votes.

The map by polls succeeds in showing that the vote was in fact hugely clustered among neighbourhoods. I don’t know the geography of Vancouver very well, but I’m almost certain that the strong groupings of red and blue (deeper the color, larger the margin of victory in a polling division) represent opposed socio-economical groups.

Vancouver South in 2008

Brossard–La Prairie in 2008

The Montreal region’s most Chinese riding comes at a lowly 32nd position, with Westmount–Ville-Marie, a largely downtown riding. Brossard–La Prairie on the South Shore is in fact what people in Montreal recognize as the “Asian suburb”. With 7.5% Chinese, it is still a far cry from Toronto or Vancouver’s suburbs.

The contrast in the map is striking, but expected. The northern portion of the riding is Brossard, where a large Asian population lives and where the Liberal vote is concentrated. La Prairie to the south tends to be typical “450”, middle-class French Canadian, seems to be voting Bloc. The race for this suburban riding was won by as little as 69 votes.

Oak Ridges–Markham in 2008

Markham–Unionville in 2008

In some other cases, the municipalities are split over different ridings. Markham, with one of the largest Chinese populations in the Toronto area, is comprised within the ridings of Oak Ridges–Markham (Conservative) and Markham–Unionville (Liberal).

(Fellow Montrealer living in Hong Kong Christopher DeWolf also wrote a post on his website Urbanphoto.net about the use of this map for street by street vote analysis.)

More on Cyberpresse…

Emoi: Lifestyle design made in China

2011-03-07

If you are familiar with Muji, you will understand what aesthetics Emoi is referring to. I was travelling to Shenzhen this weekend and stayed a night at the city’s YHA Youth Hostel located in an art and culture district called OCT-LOFT (if you know 798, it’s kinda Shenzhen’s equivalent of it). In short, I was … Continue reading “Emoi: Lifestyle design made in China”

In short, I was walking down one of alleys during the evening and saw this brightly lit shop with large windows and very minimalistic counters reminiscent of a Apple and Ikea. It was called emoi, which translates in French as “ruckus”. As many of my friends know, I’ve been looking for a new bag for months, and it seems like emoi had the answer to my quest. I liked the style and I liked the design. I particularly stuck on the wool felt bags, because I never saw bags made with such a material and that were not necessarily a women’s bags/handbag.

It was the first time I encountered this brand, but at least two of my (designer) classmates had bought products from emoi. One of them had a wool felt wallet, which ages very nicely, like a fleece sweater would. I guess that even if not unique, one of the nice thing to see is that it is a domestic store, from mainland China. We will perhaps see more and more of these original stores made in China, and before long, Chinese companies will help drive design and innovation internationally.

Kam Kuen Food 金卷: Lamma condiment shop opened by Montrealers

2011-01-17

I always thought I was the only Lamma resident of Chinese origin from Montreal. Well, that’s no longer the case. You might think that in an overcrowded city of seven million people like Hong Kong, you would not know your neighbours. This is not true on Lamma Island, a sparsely populated locality of about 6,000 … Continue reading “Kam Kuen Food 金卷: Lamma condiment shop opened by Montrealers”

I always thought I was the only Lamma resident of Chinese origin from Montreal. Well, that’s no longer the case.

You might think that in an overcrowded city of seven million people like Hong Kong, you would not know your neighbours. This is not true on Lamma Island, a sparsely populated locality of about 6,000 people, where it was in fact my cross-balcony neighbour who tipped me on other Montrealers living on Lamma.

I wanted to make a fresh dish of tofu tonight, and needed to buy a good chili oil. I remembered about the Chinese condiments shop on the main street that my neighbour was telling me about, stopped there on my way home, found the chili oil I wanted, and started chatting with the two owners, who confirmed their Montreal origin. In fact, they were as surprised as I was originally, saying how small the world is.

The lady said she grew up in Montreal, and finished her university there. I was told they were even of one of Lamma’s old families. Montreal has a tiny Chinese community compared with Toronto (or even Calgary, a much smaller city) and it’s always remarkable to find other Montrealers settling back here in Hong Kong. Some like actress Christy Chung (鍾麗緹) and Cantopop singer Denise Ho (何韻詩) even achieved household-name level of success here.

I’ll have to chat longer with these newly found Lamma-Montrealers next time. This island is definitely a place where you can’t possibly be anonymous in your immediate physical environment.

They are called Kam Kuen (金卷), Golden Roll in English, and are situated on the main street, next door to Green Cottage cafe, and diagonally across from Emily’s ice cream parlour. The small pot of chili oil with garlic was HK$20 (CA$2.54), and they said that they had a new variety of chili oil that also contains dried shrimp (蝦米) and smelled just like it — grandma would probably like it. Now that I know that the owners have a Montreal connection, I can probably feel good about buying tourist stuff from Lamma to bring back to my folks back home (it’s all made by hand in their shop)… G/F 32A, Yung Shue Wan Main Street, Lamma Island. Phone: +852 29820812

…now, how exactly can you use chili oil? With wonton noodles is a good idea, and stir-frys too. But tonight, it was, like I said, for cold tofu:

Dim sum à deux mondes opposés

2011-01-02

新興食家 San Hing Sek Ka, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong Tong Por, Ville Saint-Laurent, Montréal

新興食家 San Hing Sek Ka, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong

Tong Por, Ville Saint-Laurent, Montréal

Inside Swatow Plaza

2011-01-01

Swatow Plaza opened about five months ago on Boulevard St-Laurent in Montreal’s Chinatown. It took three years to build, but its biggest would-be tenants have yet to move in, such as the Japanese restaurant on the ground floor, and a Chinese restaurant at its very top. In the meanwhile, small boutiques are occupying the first … Continue reading “Inside Swatow Plaza”

In the meanwhile, small boutiques are occupying the first floor. The alleys are wide and shops are arranged in alcoves. My impression upon visiting on a Thursday night before Christmas was that the boutique area on the first floor had too many people behind the counter than people shopping. Being on a first floor when the second and ground floor didn’t have shops open added to the awkwardness.

Foggy morning on the ferry

2010-12-19

The day before the very cold two days in Hong Kong (13℃ during the day and 7℃ at night in urban areas), there was an episode of fog for most of the day of Tuesday…

Sina Weibo, juste un clone chinois de Twitter ? Pas si vite…

2010-12-06

Sina Weibo, en avez-vous déjà entendu parler ? Ce réseau de micro-blogues du style Twitter compte déjà 40 million d’utilisateurs en à peu près 18 mois d’existence, surtout répartis en Chine continentale. Jeudi dernier, j’ai publié un billet sur mon blogue The Rice Cooker qui comparait Twitter et son émule chinois. En termes de contenu, … Continue reading “Sina Weibo, juste un clone chinois de Twitter ? Pas si vite…”

En termes de contenu, la langue chinoise écrite est beaucoup plus compacte que les langues basées sur l’alphabet romain : un ou deux caractères chinois représentent à peu près un mot dans une langue européenne. C’est évident qu’à cause de ça, Weibo ressemble étrangement à un service de blogue sur le speed.

L’interface de Weibo est elle-même beaucoup mieux pensée que celle de Twitter, reprenant justement des idées du blogue en format long (avec des commentaires attachés aux articles) et puis un système de « retweet » qui permet beaucoup facilement de remonter la discussion sur un sujet en particulier.

Le fait de faire elle-même le hosting des photos fait également une grosse différence dans la circulation d’information. Le contenu de Weibo est très peu politique et très très orientée sur les personnes riches et célèbres (évidemment), mais a tout de même vu émerger des histoires intéressantes comme l’incident de Yihuang. Qian Gang, directeur du China Media Project à HKU, a près de 1.8 million de lecteurs abonnés à son micro-blog sur QQ.com.

Sina, la compagnie derrière Weibo (qui signifie « micro-blog » en chinois), est un géant de l’Internet en Chine (et dans la sinosphère), offrant aussi des services de blogues et de portail. Plutôt méconnues en Occident, ces compagnies (comme Tencent, avec son produit de messagerie instantanée QQ) copient au départ ce qui sort de Silicon Valley, mais finissent inévitablement par innover et améliorer. Leur incroyable volume d’utilisateurs font également de leurs produits des véhicules publicitaires hors-pair. Sina Weibo embauche d’ailleurs des célébrités pour que ceux-ci aient leurs micro-blogues sur leur réseau, plutôt que celui de QQ.

La montée de Sina et Tencent dans le domaine des micro-blogues n’est pas une coïncidence : ils ont tous deux été lancées l’année dernière, dans les mois qui ont suivi le bloquage de Twitter et de son clone chinois le plus populaire, Fanfou.com. Ce dernier est justement revenu du royaumme des sites perdus la semaine dernière.

Found: 1970s Hong Kong Tourist Association Official Guidebook

2010-12-05

Hong Kong Tourism Association Official Guidebook (circa 1977) Before leaving for Hong Kong, I brought with me this copy of an “official guidebook” distributed by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (香港旅遊協會), the precursor of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (香港旅遊發展局). My dad had given it to me some time ago when he was digging up … Continue reading “Found: 1970s Hong Kong Tourist Association Official Guidebook”

Hong Kong Tourism Association Official Guidebook (circa 1977)

Before leaving for Hong Kong, I brought with me this copy of an “official guidebook” distributed by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (香港旅遊協會), the precursor of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (香港旅遊發展局). My dad had given it to me some time ago when he was digging up his junk, and presumably picked it up when he and my mom got married in 1977, at the Lee Gardens Hotel, where the Manulife Plaza now stands (see map).

Flipping through it, I saw that the exchange rate was HK$4.70 for each US$1, compared with the HK$7.77 pegged rate today. It was during a short period of nine years when the Hong Kong dollar floated.

Lee Gardens Hotel, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (circa 1973)

View of the Harbour in late 1973

“Because only Pan Am fly the new Boeing 747SP”

Visit places like Tiger Balm Gardens in Tai Hang

And now the racier parts

Hong Kong Night Life

54 D’Aguilar Street, that’s at the middle of today’s Lan Kwai Fong

Do I need to say that this is an official guidebook produced for and endorsed by a government-funded organisation?

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The Nikkormat EL was Nikon’s first electronic camera…

…but my dad was actually a fan of Minolta and had one similar to the one in this advert. On the right, Braun also made video cameras with sound…

Wearing real fur in the 1970s was still very politically correct. I mean, look at this, it’s imported from Scandinavia!

The Dark Side

View of Kowloon in the 1970s

“Public transport in the 80s.” The Cross-Harbour tunnel and the MTR were still just a project… Wikipedia has a clearer map of the first MTR line that would open in 1979 between Central (Chater) and Kwun Tong. Other retro station names: Waterloo (Yau Ma Tei) and Argyle (Mong Kok).

Finally, we found that the publishers of the booklet, Kwun Tong based A-O-A Offset Press Limited is in business!